On the nature of the AO setting

[_______Nanitehandler]

If funcom doesnt make the mistake of marketing Shadowlands as a Sci-Fi game it will probably be successful.

[Bionitrous]

Perhaps, they won't be stupid enough to market it as being a skill-based system or that it will be free from the hell of camping. And perhaps they won't make the mistake of saying it will have an interesting on-going background story.

If they market it as EverQuest in Bogeyland, then I think they'll be tickling the fancy of the target audience they obviously are aiming towards.

- Join and Uber-guild and get 'Items'
- Get a level and earn new 'powers'
- Slay mystical Dragons and Lizardmen to get their 'lewt
- Wander the mystic lands free of dirty named people named after molten metal byproducts

- Watch in amazement as the game designers offer new and exciting twists to the basic game every three weeks.
- Never fret your poor character building abilities as the Magical Nerf Cow drops Parity Bombs on those who stand in the shadow of.

Yes, this is the game you've been playing for five years. Only this one only has a couple ten thousand people playing. If you are mediocre, we'll beat down those who make you seem so. If you have a loud mouth you will be heard. If you have to go to bed at nine, that's OK with us as we continually cut our bandwidth allowance with Exodus in an effort to prevent insolvency.

We're FunCom. We don't want a good game .... we want YOU! (for 7.2 more months)

[_______Nanitehandler]

edit: double post

[_______Nanitehandler]

WARNING: RANT AHEAD!!!







When the other Sci-Fi MMORPGS come out, AO will get its ass kicked, do you know why?? Because people originally bought this game because it was the ONLY Sci-Fi MMORPG on the market. Now that ****com is turning AO into a Fantasy MMORPG, all those people that came because AO was the only Sci-Fi MMORPG are going to leave and go to neocron, SWG, or Citizen Zero.

Hmmm, Shadowlands includes fantasy style demons/angels and a stereotypical GvE storyline, how can you say its not leaning STRONGLY towards fantasy now.

On that subject, why play Omni-Tek?! Now that ****com is going towards a GvE storyline you are 100% guaranteed to LOSE and get screwed over. Even tho Omni-Tek might have lots of uber level 200s ready to try to win the final battle, theres gonna be level a 400 clan GM to screw Omni-Tek over. Its fixed folks. We know how the story ends before it begins.

Lets see, who else is ****com screwing over.......the neutrals! Yep theyre even more screwed than Omni-Tek . R.I.P Neutrals.

P.S If I contradict myself somewhere in there, I dont care, rants arent supposed to be rational.

[__________eliziaengy]

I'm excited about more story that includes new planets and explanations of things like Notum...There is a lot more to this game than just missions, I have had a great time exploring the lands that are available now, and I'm looking foreward to the expansion pack.

[Hyperion]

It sounds like we may get what we were promised after all. That would truly be great.

Personally I left UO for AO mainly because of the underlying story. How great it would be to punish the Omni-Tek for their vile actions and travel with hardy comrades towards final victory or death.
As it turned out, it's the packing that is the game's true virtue. I think most of the game mechanics are brilliantly designed, the scenery is often breathtaking, and there is an incredible abundance of all kinds of strange gadgets to play around with.

Problem is, that the game is like a beautiful, empty book. The cover is wonderfully drawn, the pages are made from the best available paper. But the publisher chose to save the money on the ink, so all the pages are blank.

Clan vs. Omni-Tek? Sure. That means I have to go to ICC to make trades with Omnis and that I can go to the 25% zone and bash some Omni skulls. But why should I? Those hanging out there are over-twinked chars or of an obscenely high level and should I kill them, what happens? Nothing. They get rezzed, I get some PvP points, but do the Clans profit? Not a single soul cares.
And so I return to my levelling and new-char-creation since there os nothing else to do anyway.

Don't get me wrong: I think AO in many ways is a wonderfully designed game. But nobody want to run missions forever.
And noone is going to stay with a game in the long run just because they get some new nanos and/or weapons to toy around with.
AO is like an expensive easter egg. It tastes so great, and looks so good - but, alas, it is hollow

[Bionitrous]

It's all about player ownership of something of lasting real value. 'Real' estate.

Who can give me an example of something on Rubi'Ka that makes them say 'damn, I just can't give up my AO account after having achieved _______.'? You can't.

There's nothing of real value. Instead of adding to the game's richness, they dump resources like crazy chasing after some pipe dream of 'balance' and make the game less fulfilling on the one hand while not providing any real dreams to chase after.

The house in UO. The small tower on Fire Island. The GM 'anything' before 'power hour'.

A guild house. A thriving business. A mining deed. The Marble Table.

All AO is is an empty game. A game that is ending up with less and less 'game' with each subsequent patch. As they take the 'game' out, we end up with an empty chat client.

The nature of the AO setting is such that you must feel a 'part' of it regardless of the actions of the players around you. All the catering that goes on creating junk for that dragon, all that programming effort is for naught the second those people drop the game. There's nothing tangible holding those people to Anarchy Online and FunCom doesn't seem to understand it.

Once people tire of their millionth mission or their 500th dragon kill, they're gone. No questions asked, no regrets. Once another game comes out that's fun they're gone. Nothing to keep them on Rubi'Ka.

AO was once fun. It was an empty vacuous planet devoid of meaning and purpose. But, it was fun. They smashed the game to pieces with the nerf stick. Now you got a less fun level-treadmill with just as little of value or meaning. Not a recipe for long term viability.

Now, look at the design document for Star Wars: Galaxies. Player-housing. PvP with checks and balances and meaning. Guild housing. Player cities. Professions that can require crafting, killing, or dancing. All wrapped up in a franchise I despise.

The game could utterly suck. But, if my guild had aquired a hangout. But, if my wife owned a beauty salon. If my Engineer ran a Blaster Shop. If we had a vacation home on some water planet. If my son were fighting for the Rebellion. If my daughter was a two-timer working for the Hutts. My accounts would probably be paid off my Social Security check. Can't say what the end result will be with that one.

But, we know what we have in Anarchy Online: nothing. Add Shadowlands and we'll have even more of the same: nothing. Just items and playfields. Even less value added than a new deck of cards in a PokeMon game.

They just don't understand game design and wonder why all those who left for DAoC won't come back even after they get bored to tears with DAoC. There's nothing here.

Ten items in your apartment. And people can't even knock on the door. You can't even open the door for them. You can't give them a key. You can't give them the combination to your doorlock. And you wonder why we don't have guild housing. They can't even get apartments to the barest of functionality.

Blech. I'm in a foul mood lately. A pox on those making decisions regarding this game.

[____________Gridbane]

<rant>

Given that AO is the only real mmorpg out there with a sci-fi setting now (and lets face it, I am sorry but citizen zero and neocron look absolutely lame, one looks like nothing but missions all day long and the other gives you what appears to be a choice of one race and 4 classes.... viva variety! Oh, and start wars galaxies....evercrack in space no doubt) I have decided to check it out. I have to say that I was a little disappointed. I understand that the game is a year old and I have not been playing it too long, but this to me seems like yet another evercrack in space. Listening to all of the bitter players here just seems to give me a vision of the future if I continue down this road.

It is unfortunate that SHADOWBANE (not the expansion here boys and girls.... www.shadowbane.com) is a fantasy setting, I have always liked sci-fi over fantasy, but here is a game, or at least an mmorpg concept that I think everyone should follow. Give 'em an empty world and the ability to build cities, completely open and unlimited pvp ability, and let 'em make their OWN stories and intrigue with in it. I am not saying that it will be the best of mmorpgs, but am I the only one tired of static camp fest rpgs with far too much emphasis on what you have in your backpack? Is it too much to ask for a player driven game universe? Of course, this revolutionary new approach was after AO's time, but it seems like people are always trying to band aid their old game with expansion sets. Just look at EQ, working on a sequal and a 4th expansion pack....give me a break already.

I have only been playing AO for a few days now, and at level 11 I have made no friends (seems like you don't group in this game until much later) and done nothing but missions already. Given the very structured, 50% nerfed, "you pvp where we say" approach it seems like that aspect is going to be pretty dull as well.

I think the worst part of it all are the still persistent bugs, this game is what, a year old now? It has crashed on me once every time I have played, and many more times I have experienced in game bugs. From what I have heard, the game is "stable" now, or at least more stable than it has ever been in the past. Humorous at best.

I guess the overall point was that people out there are now turning this mmorpg world around, and doing things with it that noone ever thought of before (who would have ever thought of combining real time strategy elements and city building/seiging with an rpg. Sure you have "seiges" in DAoC, but when you are done, the keep is still there man, it is still a STATIC universe) and they are going through MONTHS, nay YEARS of testing and development.

Take notes guys, you are all about to get owned, big time. Games where the players actually make a difference and change the world are comming.

Who knows, maybe if I become a "big player" in shadowbane and start my own guild and city I will name it "Athen" or "Tir" or "Qeynos" as an homage to a stale pastime, and a hope for a dynamic new beginning.

</rant>

Sorry about that, but this rant is for funcom, verant, and all the others out there trying to cookie cut and control static game universes and deliver the same stuff in different packaging everywhere. Noone can get it right, and I doubt even shadowbane will, but this genre of gaming needs some brave souls to go out there and innovate, not slap on expansion packs and pray for the best.

Mod me, kill me, delete my account.... there is no running from the truth. People are tired. This stuff has been done and redone for 3-4 years now. The genre has to undergo a major makeover.

[_______Nanitehandler]

Gridbane, about neocron, thats what I thought when I first heard of the game. But, eventually I found out that the classes are pretty much meaningless and you can basically do whatever you put skills in, all the classes do is detirmine starting equipment and give you advantages in certain areas and disadvantages in others. If you choose a private eye class, you start out with no advantages and disadvantages and basically choose what you wanna do from there(psi,guns,hacking,etc...).

[______________Yeknom]

Ding Dong AO's dead!
Lost its head!
Fell out of bed!
Ding Dong the boring AO's DEAD!!!!!!

Everyone together now! Sing it!

Anyway, I've played AO since the week after it came out. I was impressed. I was mad at how long it took for FC to fix the million and a half problems with the game. This whole time they have been fixing, changing, rearraging, adding, deleting, and finally have come close to something playable....BUT, while they were busy running around trying to still develop the game they forgot about the story. NOW THAT HURTS! I want a story!

Now, just to clarify, I had to make up my own story through the guild I was in. If I didn't have the 'Red Tigers' for a clan, I would have said goodbye long ago, but instead we would wage war on Omni-tek with other clans, have parties, and genereally cause a rucus. Nowadays, after change of Presidents(I wish Hatchet was still running the show) and basic boredom from everybody else, you'll be lucky to see 2 other guild members online at the same time(out of the 232 members that we have). It is due to the shallowness of AO. SURE, the part where you run around, beat up stuff, and mission are cool... SADLY, that's all that's cool about it.

I don't see how there can be an expansion to AO to something that has no soul. To me it seems, like FC is trying to buy furniture for a house that has no walls yet!

When are we going bring in some more story. I'm pretty sure I don't speak for myself when I say, "I"M SO BORED".

All in all I want something to happen, I can't wait till Shadowlands comes out. Even then, we will probably have to wait a year for all the problems with it to be worked out and WE WILL STILL HAVE NO REAL STORY!

[____________Valerian]

What makes you think that a game company, ompletely unable to provide any meaningful customer service after a year into release and that starts putting in EQ style quests to give people something to do and actually does something as mindnumbingly stupid as using the same mobs in 2 different quests, so that one group of players wants to target the mob and the other wants to kill it at the same time (all that on an overcrowded server and with 18h spawntime on the mob), will be able to run a storyline in the game?

I think not.

The concept is a failure and it's too late to make significant changes to the game now as the players start screaming the moment it even looks like there will be any change to the disadvantage of their gamechara.

I will not buy any extension to this game unless other MMORPGs coming out now are all really really bad.
What remains are beautifull graphics and nice music.

Val

[______________Elpaco]

Well what about Ao in the futur :

- for me AO has the better graphics than any other online game no - in the next month Stars wat Galaxies wil come with better graphics (i think)

- now AO has no real Guild managment system - in the next month other game will come with a real guild management system (SWG, Shadowbane)

Because i would like to have my own house, my city, my shop, my NPC (fighters, traders,..) i hope that AO will give us the opportunity to have a system of guild managment. Funcom made graet job with AO , now i m still waiting for the next great job : guild mangemnt (smthing like shadowbane).

I thinks a lot of players wait for that.

[lindbeck]

I wish you guys who complain alot about the contents of Anarchy Online,
would start playing the game, instead of just level - upgrade armor/
weapons - level - upgrade implants - level ..... etc

you are mad that there is no story?

well, there IS a story, only you guys arent taking part in it,
you are too busy doing team missions and DING! :-)

im sorry, i just can't seem to take this kind of critisism seriously.

trust me ... when new mmorpg's come out, they will have
the same forums on their web-sites, populated with people
saying: where's this and that?? you promised a good story!! etc

All mmorpg's to date have had these forums filled with negative
FPS-players :-)

[klax]

Originally posted by Talcum
well, there IS a story, only you guys arent taking part in it

Well where is it? all i see is reports on the nett. Nothing else.
And no i am not just Dinging and Trading.

[Peisinoe]

Yes. It is very hard to play anything else after playing AO. The graphics are nice. But honestly, that is the only reason I continue to play.

There was a huge potential for story in this game. There was huge potential for dynamic story driven events. These would require more employees and effort then a small company like Funcom can commit to however. Instead they give us power hungry GMs who roleplay with the same ten people and lead events in which players stand around while GMs do the actual participating. For anyone who's even played a table top rpg, the concept of mediating a story and guiding players without actualy participating actively is a fairly easy concept to grasp. Oh well.

Most of us ***** and moan about wanting this and that, but many of us will be happy with far less. I think Funcom will be in for a suprise how many people leave this game once something else with nice graphics and even a pinch of content is released.

That said, I do love the concept of AO. I'd love to learn the entire background story. One can only hope that after bankruptcy hits them, someone will sneak out the storyline to satisfy our curiousity.

[_____________Zehnman]

I found it interesting that there was no mention of Peter F. Hamilton's series (can't remember the series name, but started with the book Reality Dysfunction). SOOOO much of that series made me think of AO. Absolutely fantastic series and it made me WANT to play AO. Wish they would start cranking out more novels and/or newsletters that take place in the AO universe. It's amazing how much reading ABOUT your game world makes you want to spend more time IN the game world. Food for thought, FunCom.

Anyone know of any other series that reminds them a lot of AO?

[_____________Borrace]

AO is a dune rip off from the start.

the fremen (native rebels) rising up to defeat the harkonen (opressive rulers) who were given the rights to mine ****e (notum) on the planet arakis (rubi-ka).

the only thing we're missing is a messiah type figure to lead the clans. we got the sandworms.

[lilnymph]

Originally posted by Zehnman
I found it interesting that there was no mention of Peter F. Hamilton's series (can't remember the series name, but started with the book Reality Dysfunction). SOOOO much of that series made me think of AO. Absolutely fantastic series and it made me WANT to play AO. Wish they would start cranking out more novels and/or newsletters that take place in the AO universe. It's amazing how much reading ABOUT your game world makes you want to spend more time IN the game world. Food for thought, FunCom.

Anyone know of any other series that reminds them a lot of AO?

Thats the Nights Dawn Triolgy, one of the BEST pieces of sci fi writing ever. If you like space sci fi, read them. Also try his Greg Mandle series. Infact, just read anything he has written (in case you cant tell, I like his books ). He probably wasnt mentioned as I dont think he is that well known outside of Britain at the moment, but his books are well written, logical, and have excellent storylines.

hugs

lilnymph

[Orinatha]

Well I am getting back into the game soon.

Lets face it their should be some spirital, mistic aspects of the game. Oh and while where at it cant he Mp and Nt be turned into one clase please

[Shyenia]

Hey folks since this is the perfect topic to post this idea I would love feedback from all you people. Considering that we all play this game because of the story line we all have hopes for

1) Post your thoughts and comments on where you think the story line is going to go. Sure we got hints along with Sh**s and giggles but also it was very vague so lets put our collective intellegent minds together and try to come to a common consensus on what FunCom has planned for us.

2) I love the recommendations on all the book series. I would really love to keep them coming. The original mention of Tad Williams Otherland Saga and the Dune Saga are of course very good reads. Mr. Williams is a bit heavy on the detail pretty close to Wheel of time pace and descriptive quality, but with a different flare. Seeing as how I have finished the first two books I can highly recommend this as a good read. I hope you guys can turn me on to other great series. Sci-fi/Fantasy alike